An ITV for the heart that detects abnormalities early

Every year, more people die from cardiovascular disease than from any other cause in the world. And yet, most of these pathologies can be prevented by acting against tobacco use, unhealthy diets, a sedentary lifestyle or harmful use of alcohol. Another way is through MyoStrain, an imaging diagnostic technology that came to revolutionize Cardiology by detecting dysfunctions that were invisible to conventional diagnostic tests.

“It allows for early diagnosis of cardiac dysfunction and to know its location and extent before the patient presents symptoms or cardiac damage”, explains Dr. Eliseo Vañó Galvánmedical director of the Magnetic Resonance and CT service at the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Hospital, in Madrid.

Thus, this new tool makes it possible to actively prevent a cardiovascular disease that if diagnosed early, it can be largely reversible, such as suffering from hypertensive heart disease.

Furthermore, as Dr. Vañó explains, “contrast is not injected, therefore it is non-invasive and has no risk” and is only contraindicated in the case of pacemakers, pregnant women, intracranial clips, etc. In turn, it is “much more reproducible than echocardiography, for example, and can detect a future cardiovascular problem three, four or five years earlier than with other diagnostic techniques”, he states.

And not only. MyoStrain improves the quality of the images obtained, the analysis of results and the duration of tests. And it is that it identifies the weakest areas of the heart and is able to assess the degree of health of the heart, which allows stratifying the risk that a patient has of developing cardiovascular diseases in the future (this probability is what the patient may have throughout of life, unless you change life patterns and habits) and all this in a matter of minutes.

But what does practice consist of? «MyoStrain performs an MRI sequence with specific post-processing. To make the image of the heart legible, the software creates a color image and we analyze the segments (48)”, explains the doctor, who recommends this exam for two broad-spectrum groups: to prevent, elite or amateur athletes would be included here to avoid, for example, sudden death. And the other big group is for people with cardiovascular disease or at high risk of suffering it, as is the case of cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy, with valvular disease to decide whether to have surgery or for patients who have had covid to check whether SARS-CoV-2 left any sequelae or not.

Furthermore, if the resulting risk value is high, this technology allows not only to quickly refer the patient to a specialist, but also to subsequently monitor the performance of the treatment given by the doctor. «The period for repeating the test is not currently established, so it depends on each professional. If it works, it can be done again after three or five years, except for a change in symptoms, and if it goes wrong, to measure the effectiveness of a treatment, the second test can be done after six months,” says the doctor. .

Since its launch in September 2021, fifty patients have undergone this test and a problem has been detected in 30-40% of them.

So, once the patient is in the MRI machine, he is asked to breathe in and out and not breathe. Between positioning the patient, laying him down, placing the meters, etc. it takes 10 minutes, and the assessment after the fact: five.

This new software improves the medical examination and also makes it quick and easy: “Myo-Strain is performed using a 12-beat heart scan without contrast, and MRI time is less than ten minutes, allowing us to see many more patients » than with other techniques, explains Rafael Rivero, medical director of Myocardial Solutions, who details that In the USA, more than 50 centers use this technology, in the United Kingdom another seven, in Germany 10 centers… in Spain, in total, in three private centers: the one mentioned and Virgen del Mar and Hospital de la Milagrosa.

If the patient also wants to have a stress test It can also be done quickly and effectively by having you hyperventilate and then hold your breath for 10 seconds to see whether or not there is an ischemic change in the myocardium. “In this way, by making him breathe very quickly, the coronary arteries close and by not breathing, reflex vasodilation is produced, which is what we measure stress without using drugs, without making the patient run, etc.”, explains the doctor.